GFH to take stake in US data centres

Dubai-listed GFH Financial Group plans to invest in US data centres.

The Bahraini financier, through its GFH Capital unit, will invest in the portfolio that includes two data centres with Corporate Office Properties Trust (Copt), a US$5 billion office real estate investment trust (Reit) that specialises in both office and data centre properties.

“The investment provides GFH and its investors with exposure to the positive dynamics of the US real estate market and, in particular, increasing demand for data centres in the US led by growth in cloud services and data storage needs,” the company said in a filing to the Dubai Financial Market.

Copt will also make a 20 per cent investment in the portfolio, expected to provide a 9.5 per cent annual distribution rate over the investment period as well as an internal rate of return of 12 per cent.

Data centre stocks are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.1 per cent from 2015 to 2018, according to a report by the property consultant JLL. North America is the most mature market, representing 44 per cent of the world’s market, and northern Virginia is considered the most active with about 103 megawatts of new supply under construction.​

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